NEWS ROUNDUP SPECIAL: Stories From Across The World About ALL MY CHILDREN & The State of Soaps

Below is a roundup of newspaper and internet stories about the network finale of ALL MY CHILDREN. There were viewing parties all over the country, and those big groups will obviously not be reflected in the Nielsen ratings. Whatever number of viewers watching Nielsen tells us next week will be way off. Perhaps it always is.

Goodbye Erica Kane: She Leaves as She Arrives
A couple of years a friend of mine fretted over her adult daughter over Christmas. The daughter, whom she’d named for Erica, was in the hospital and quite down. I literally heard this on December 23rd. A quick call was put in to Lucci’s office–could she call this real Erica, a woman she didn’t know, on Christmas eve, and give her some support? And don’t you know, she did it alright. That’s Susan Lucci. And she’s fun, she’s the total opposite of Erica.

Susan’s been kicked around a little bit recently because she hasn’t just succumbed to the entreaties of Prospect Park, the company that wants to take the two soaps online. It’s a negotiating ploy. But Prospect Park knows you can’t have AMC without Susan Lucci, so they will –they’d better– make that deal.

CAST & CREWVIDEO: Watch Friday's special ALL MY CHILDREN episode of THE VIEW
THE VIEW celebrated ALL MY CHILDREN with a special one-hour theme show on, Friday. Daytime Emmy Award-winner Susan Lucci served as the show's featured guest co-host. Legendary creator/writer Agnes Nixon and executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers appeared as did a number of stars including Darnell Williams, Debbi Morgan, Rebecca Budig, Alicia Minshew, Thorsten Kaye, Cameron Mathison, Laurence Lau and Kim Delaney.

Rebecca Budig Bids 'Farewell' to ALL MY CHILDREN: 'I Will Forever Be Grateful'
"I have a life back in New York. I will say that I think that Prospect Park is going to turn the show around and make it great. I believe they’re going to make it a success. I’m actually very excited to see what they do with it. They’re really smart, dedicated, and passionate about it, and not to say that ABC wasn’t, but Prospect Park is going to breathe new energy into the show. I have met with Prospect Park and we are still talking."

Carruthers is as Cleaver-like as they come in the industry. All soap producers end up being “mom” on some level to dozens of actors and usually over 100 staff and crew. The soap casts and crews are more like family than almost anything you find in the entertainment industry. They personally invest in each other and a trust builds.

HISTORYALL MY CHILDREN: Emmy Awards and Milestones By the Numbers
41 Seasons: Time Susan Lucci played Erica Kane
3: Times All My Children earned best drama series at the Emmys.
30: Best drama series Emmy nominations.
1970: All My Children premiered on Jan. 5 of that year.
1990: Year Kelly Ripa joined All My Children. The end of the show is "like losing a member of your family," she said.
28: Combined Emmy acting wins for the cast.
18: Number of times Susan Lucci was nominated for best actress before finally winning. By 2011, she had been nominated 21 times.
1999: Year Lucci finally won her first Emmy. "There's something to be said for anticipation. It's not all bad," she joked.
2: Emmy wins for Darnell Williams for portraying Jesse Hubbard. One prize was for supporting actor and the other was for lead actor for the same character.
1: The only African-American actress to ever win a Daytime Emmy is Debbie Morgan, who played Angie Hubbard.
5: Number of Emmys won by David Canary for doing double duty as ruthless tycoon Adam Chandler and his simple-minded twin brother Stuart Chandler.
1: Primetime Emmy win for Mary Fickett. The actress won the prize in 1973 for an episode in which her character expressed her misgivings about the Vietnam War. Fickett died Sept. 8 of Alzheimer's.

‘AMC’-ya later
Kathy Carano: “But at the end of the finale, Erica Kane said, ‘That is not the ending I wanted.’ I kind of agree with her. I guess I didn’t expect the ending to come wrapped up neatly with a little bow. ”

Fan of 40 years says 'goodbye' to Erica KaneLoyal ALL MY CHILDREN fans see TV soap through to end
Beutler, like Collins, thought the finale fell short, especially in invoking Gone With the Wind dialogue right before the abrupt, mysterious ending. As the next soap opera came on, she wondered aloud, "That's it?"
El Paso Fan Reacts to Final Episode
But the drama isn't over for Papke. She said if ABC goes through with a web series, she'll be the first to watch.
ALL MY CHILDREN signs off -- or does it?
For those viewers who wanted closure -- or at least to shed some tears -- beloved denizen of Pine Valley and all-around good guy Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight), provided the opportunity.
He looked around at those dearly beloved gathered at the party for Stuart, and said: "Neighbors, family and friends. I've found all of them here. This is my home, the best years of my life."
O.C. fans say goodbye to ALL MY CHILDREN
When her favorite show ended its network broadcast days on Friday, Hikawa's husband Doug recorded the finale on both the DVR and DVD so they could keep it as a memento.
Chicago fans say goodbye to ALL MY CHILDRENOrlando: Network finale leaves local fans wanting more
What we thought was going to be wrapped up in a nice, little neat package, left us with more questions than we bargained for.
DePauw DG Alums Gather to Say Goodbye to AMC
"It was between classes and we all made it to sit around the TV and have lunch and, at the very last second, make it to our 1 o'clock classes," Linda (Jones) Eichholtz, a 1979 DePauw graduate, tells the station.
Western North Carolina: Longtime fan watches finale (VIDEO)
Tina Campen's been watching since she was four years old.
Sun Coast: Fans, stars say farewell
But even with the budgets on the rise, Walt Willey said there were other ways to keep the show alive. "We could have cut the shows to half an hour, cut the casts, we could have moved to an internet presence before this. "
The ALL MY CHILDREN Finale Was Crap
I would much rather see the bullet actually hit somebody and be shocked by the ending than this fairly unremarkable finish to a remarkable show.
ALL MY CHILDREN series finale ends like THE SOPRANOS
For those who either can’t watch it online or choose not to, ALL MY CHILDREN truly did them a disservice.
TV Guide: Our Take
"My dear, dear friends, what would I do without you?" Oh Tad, we have no idea!
ALL MY CHILDREN Ends Its Run With a Cliffhanger
Carolyn Hinsey, author of "Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter," organized a watching party at a Manhattan sports bar as a message to television executives who apparently think soap operas don't matter anymore.
CTV NATIONAL NEWS: Good-bye Erica Kane (VIDEO)
The founder of welovesoaps.com explains what made ALL MY CHILDREN enthralling enough to be on the air for 41 years, and why soap operas are disappearing from television.
Soap opera's end signals small death for longtime fan
"There was a time when I wouldn't admit to being a soap fan. I still sometimes hear the defensive tone in my voice, as if daytime serials are something to be ashamed of. We created the stereotype of the soap watcher - a bored, dull housewife who ignores the cleaning and neglects her children. That has never been me or any of my friends."
Over the Fence: I’m crying over the loss of ‘AMC’
"I will be saving these episodes on my DVR. It is all I have left of the show, that has been such a big part of my life for 41 years. I have purchased special publications on AMC to keep in my library. I have a long history with this show. I will miss it. And, even if it does go on with Internet episodes, I am still done. It will never be the same."
Fans dread soap opera’s demise
“It’s just real people behaving badly,” said Beverly Matteson, 58, a fan of ALL MY CHILDREN since her senior year of high school. “(With soap operas), you don’t have to feel bad about yourself or for humanity in general. It’s a story.”
Look at all the years of ALL MY CHILDREN
Enrique Buenrostro, a 20-year-old college student who lives in Tustin, says he'll stick with ALL MY CHILDREN even if he is unhappy about how ABC has handled his favorite soap opera. It's too much a part of his life to give up: His mother was a fan and he remembers seeing it on the TV at home since he was about 3.
VIDEO: The curtain closes on ALL MY CHILDRENFAREWELLSSaying goodbye to ALL MY CHILDREN
"Over the decades I’ve watched these fictional families grow and evolve, and bonded with my own mother and sister in the process. It’s hokey, I know, but regardless of all our other differences, my family and I had this show in common."
As ALL MY CHILDREN ends, TV soap opera fans mournRoger Newcomb, who edits the website "We Love Soaps," said he became engrossed in the characters' exotic and complicated lives.
"I would come home from school and watch five hours of soaps — this was back in the VCR days — and I could transport myself from my home in Tennessee to one of these fictional Midwestern towns as a means of escapism," Newcomb, 41, said. "The people survived so many things and always overcame adversity. It was a great message for young people."
"People are just glued to these programs, and that's the ideal audience," Prospect Park co-founder Rich Frank said. "There is nothing else like it in American television, and we do not want to ignore technology."
Grand Rapids sports writer is a big ALL MY CHILDREN fan
Zuidema hopes for a little closure in the final episode. He has no plans to follow the story online. The last day for ALL MY CHILDREN is Friday. It will then move online in January.
Fans fume over the final ALL MY CHILDREN airing Friday
In regards to the cooking show, Tricia pointed out, "I wish Disney would pull their heads out their butts and realize that stay at home moms and wives don't want to watch cooking shows, it only makes them remember they have to do it later."
Farewell to Pine Valley
Critics who disparage the art of the soap clearly have never been to Pine Valley. From the very start, creator Agnes Nixon has taken chances, dealing head-on with politically charged social issues. The show has dealt with issues of class, women's rights and sexual orientation. TV's first legal abortion was on "All My Children" (just months after Roe vs. Wade), and it was the first soap to have a story line about homosexuality (in 1983) as well as the first to have an ongoing major lesbian character, Bianca. It was the first to celebrate a same-sex marriage, and the first to deal with transgender issues — through an unforgettable transgender rock-star character. Regular viewers have also learned quite a lot about drug abuse, intervention and alcoholism.
Future uncertain as ALL MY CHILDREN signs off
Reality television, which occupies much the same pop-culture head space, feels gross and unboundaried by comparison. Some of us would rather be kidnapped, held captive by an evil prince, escape him and seduce our ex-husbands away from the twin sister who poisoned us on the soaps, than be Snooki from JERSEY SHORE in real life.
ALL MY CHILDREN Remembered by Viewers on Last Day
As the show signs off air today after 41 years, fans take to Twitter to remember the soap.
A Lapsed Fan’s Farewell To ALL MY CHILDREN
"For me it's more like your parents selling the house you grew up in. Even if you haven't lived there in years, there's a part of you that felt like it would always be there, and it's sad to know it's gone."
AfterEllen: ALL MY CHILDREN says goodbye — and we say thanks
"Bianca Montgomery is ALL MY CHILDREN's best-known lesbian, but she wasn't the first. In 1983, psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Carson (Donna Pescow) revealed her sexual orientation — and became the first LGBT person on an American soap."
MARTHA THOMASES: Of Soap and Comic Books
Mainstream comics also show soap influence. When I started to read comics, every issue was self-contained, and most stories were about the fights and the powers. Now the characters have more developed emotional lives, and readers are as caught up with the personalities as they are with determining who would win in a fight.
AMC leaves the air and great memories behind
We've suggested before that ABC release daytime drama highlights on DVD. This would be a great time for that network to give it some serious thought.
PHOTO GALLERY: ALL MY CHILDREN Then & Now
A look at some popular stars who started out on AMC.
ALL MY CHILDREN comes to an end after 41 years: Soap was first to tackle gay marriage, abortion
Ironically, soap-style and soap-influenced dramas are thriving on television these days. ABC's younger sister network, Family, has built its successful prime-time bloc almost exclusively on soap-style stories for teenagers, while networks like MTV and Disney also draw heavily on soaps for their teen dramas.
CLASSIC MOMENTSVIDEO: AMC's Top 3 Parenting MomentsMERCHANDISEOrder final AMC cast photo
Purchase for $24.95.
COMMENTARY ON SOAPSY&R's Jeanne Cooper speaks out: TV executives are taking a genre away
"I feel bad for soap fans, new and old," Cooper said. "TV executives are taking a genre away from them and saying, 'This is what you're going to get whether you like it or not,' and I find that disrespectful.
"Economically, we know why it's being done. It's cheap. But you can only eat so much food and hear people talk about the same things over and over before you just want to run off and join the zoo."
The Soap Opera Is Dead! Long Live the Soap Opera!
Martha P. Nochimson, a former soap writer and the author of a definitive book on the genre, pointed out that because closure is the enemy of ongoing episodic narrative, soaps avoided the types of characters who tend to bring stories to an end — notably, male heroes who save the day and male toughs who kill people.
“You have a different vision of social problems and of gender if you don’t have a concluding scene,” Nochimson said. “Other things can happen, things that are more subversive.”
At some point — perhaps around the time that prime time began borrowing liberally from soaps’ multiplotted formulas and the Internet and cable made television audiences harder to hold at every hour — executives seemed to lose confidence in what was unique about their form.
Daytime TV became more like what was shown at night. The shows’ focuses shifted away from multigenerational matriarchies and homed in on younger casts. Macho guys and their averagely violent story lines pulled shows along. “The women were shoved to the side,” Nochimson observed.
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